WandaLUST » Social Media Plus

Silencing the vuvuzela one plug at a time

editor — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:07:21 +0000

Blow them? Ban them? Love them? Loath them? On and off the field and across the world the hammering drone of the vuvuzela is raising more intense emotions — and a greater range of them — than when ones favorite team gets knocked out of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Now Durban interior designer Liesl Heath is doing something about it. Since last week she has been taking the guts out of the vuvuzela’s discordance and turning it into a whisper with her cleverly branded ‘Shu-Shu Zela’ earplugs. The idea for the earplugs ...

I’m geeky, you’re geeky, we’re all geeky at She’s Geeky

editor — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:51:05 +0000

A perfect storm of synergy develops into an inspiring organic agenda when 300 women working in the STEM fields gather at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

By Wanda Hennig

Super-geek and Berkeley–based internet identity guru Kaliya Hamlin mounted her first She’s Geeky 'un'conference in October 2007 and her most recent, last weekend. They grew from her observation that while women are encouraged to enter the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — once women leave school and enter the workforce,

Sex, Social Media and New Zealand (3): Blogs & Vlogs

editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:02:07 +0000

San Francisco Culinary Travel Examiner: Blog and Vlog post links 1 – 8 8. Rotorua menu blends Maori hangi, haka, Swoop and Zorb. Eat, play, love, New Zealand (With video and slideshow) 7. Xtremely hot Maori lunch cooked in lizard cauldron (2). Video. Eat, play, love, New Zealand (With video) 6. Xtremely hot Maori lunch cooked in lizard cauldron (1). Slideshow. Eat, play, love, New Zealand (With slideshow) 5. Tiger Moth flights to freedom and romance woo lovers. Eat, play, love, New Zealand (With slideshow) 4. Matchmaking Flight: Who went? Why? Having a ball. Eat, play, love, New Zealand (With ...

Sex, Social Media and New Zealand (2): How to write a travel blog

editor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:26:35 +0000

Ten tips to publishing online (versus writing for a print publication). My first journalism job was on The Daily News in Durban, South Africa and — wait for it — we used typewriters. We’d layer four short sheets of paper — long enough to type maybe three paragraphs, at a pinch — separated by three sheets of carbon paper, and roll them into the machine. God alone knows what the parts of the typewriter were called and by my second newspaper job (on the Sunday Tribune, also in Durban), basic computers were ...

Six Steps to Vlogging Success

editor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:33:55 +0000

From Beast Bloggers Camp, Tech Liminal, Oakland, October 24, 2009 Zennie (Zennie62) Abraham presents at Tech Liminal Six-step process to shooting your own video — from Nava Bromberger (presenting with Zennie62 Abraham) Choose topic. An event. Opinion. You might have an idea. Confirm its hot by going to yahoo top searches, or google. Camera plus opinion and do it. Research keywords. Depending on what words you choose, your post will be found more often. See what variations of the keywords are hot to tag your posts. Create content using video. A case study ...

Bloggers Bar Camp SEO Best Practices

editor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:20:26 +0000

From Beast Bloggers Camp, Tech Liminal, Oakland, October 24, 2009 Search Engine Optimization Best Practices: Scot Hacker, UC Berkeley General: Eighty percent of users click on one of the first three results that come up. SEO is the process of getting your site to appear up at the top in searches. It’s important to separate the good ideas and best practices from the snake oil. There are a lot of cons going on. Good content is key. Quality (of content and material) is more important than quantity (bombardment) for SEO. Google has 200 ingredients in ...

Sex, Social Media and New Zealand — (Part 1)

editor — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:32:23 +0000

Travel writing in the age of blogs, twitter — and when ‘viral’ is desirable.

By Wanda Hennig A veteran print journalist and editor — turned online writer, blogger and social media buff — embarks on a real-life travel writing-cum-social media project and invites you along for the ride. Tips, hints, pitfalls to avoid, good practices to aspire to, facts, fallacies and all the write stuff.

The invitation in my inbox read:

“Dear Wanda  — Love is in the air at Air New Zealand as the airline prepares for the world’s first Matchmaking Flight. On October 13, an estimated 100 singles will journey from Los Angeles to Auckland, each with the hope of finding a match in air,

Blog wisdom: 40 key facts, tips and pointers

editor — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:59:25 +0000

The inside scoop from educators, activists and social media gurus at the East Bay’s first Beast Bloggers Bar Camp. Photos: Wanda Hennig This list of 40 facts, tips, key points and “how to” suggestions come from blogging panels and conversations at the first East Bay Beast Bloggers Bar Camp held at Tech Liminal in Oakland. (Read more on the event here.) Some comments are attributed. Others came from general discussion. All are from Bar Camp participants. (See Part One of this story.) About Blogging Decide what are you trying to say? What do ...

The great East Bay Beast Bloggers Bar Camp

editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:27:54 +0000

The happening was in Oakland at Tech Liminal. So — what is the nature of The Beast?

On a Saturday morning in late July, just after a flock of white pelicans arrived for an extended stay at Lake Merritt, a group of activists, bloggers, would-be bloggers, vloggers, Twitter gurus, print journalists transitioning to the web in the age of social media, high-tech nerds, and others, gathered at Tech Liminal in Oakland for the East Bay’s first Beast Bloggers Bar Camp. People at the event, hosted by journalism micro-funding project Spot.Us, Oakland technical hotspot and salon Tech Liminal and Oakland’s must-read independent politics and development blog, A Better Oakland had been advised to arrive: With coffee mug and a laptop (or notebook and pen); prepared to talk blogging

Alive in South Africa: When an expat goes ‘home’

editor — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:45:18 +0000

What is it like to return to your roots, your soil, for the first time after you’ve emigrated and made a new life in Australia? By special correspondent Lois Nicholls Editor of JournoNews Alive! The word pops into my head as we enter Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo Airport. Ironic really, isn’t it, for a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world. Yet I feel it. Sense it. Am reminded of a friend who says he comes alive every time he returns – feels boring, bland and disconnected for weeks ...